The
Puget Sound has a long history of passenger ferry
transportation.At the turn of the 20th century
a number of companies provided passenger ferry service using
small steamers. Known as the “Mosquito Fleet”, this
passenger ferry system operated between Seattle, Olympia,
Tacoma, Port Townsend, Everett, Bellingham, Victoria, Vancouver,
Bremerton, Vashon Island and Bainbridge Island and other Puget
Sound ports.By
1910 Puget Sound Navigation Company, operating under the name
Black Ball Line, carried 2 million passengers a year. By 1929, only two companies, The Black Ball Line and
Kitsap County Transportation Company, were providing ferry
service on the Puget Sound, and the service had been
consolidated to fewer routes served by larger passenger vessels.
In 1935, Kitsap County Transportation Company closed down
leaving The Black Ball Line in control of ferry service on the
Puget Sound.

Beginning
in the late 1930’s, Captain Peabody of the Black Ball Line
purchased 17 auto-carrying ferries from San Francisco Bay at
very favorable prices as that region was phasing out ferry
service and constructing bridges. With the introduction of auto
ferries, Black Ball Line removed the passenger-only ferries
replacing them with the new auto carrying ferries. The
additional carrying capacity afforded by the 17 auto carrying
ferries allowed the Black Ball Line to respond quickly to the
tremendous increase in demand for cross sound ferry service
during World War II.

However,
after World War II, the demand for ferry service declined,
creating financial difficulties for the Black Ball Line. In
response to the financial crisis, Black Ball Line cut back
service and implemented several fare increases. The public
outcry over the fare increases led the Transportation Commission
to order a roll back.In
opposition to this action, Black Ball Line terminated its
charter for ferry service with the State that in turn prompted
the State to pass legislation that authorizing the purchase of
Black Ball Line.On
May 31, 1951, the State bought Black Ball Line for $4.9 million.
Washington State Ferries (WSF) now operates the
country’s largest auto ferry service with 28 vessels carrying
over 24 million passengers to 20 different ports.

The
first modern experiment in passenger only ferry service occurred
in the summer of 1978 when, WSF and Boeing operated a Boeing
jetfoil for six weeks on the Puget Sound. While the jetfoil was deemed by WSF to be too expensive
to run, WSF determined that high-speed passenger only ferry
service offered a viable means of reducing automobile usage and
promoting passenger travel.

After
the jetfoil experiment, the issue of passenger only ferry
service was notpursued
again until 1984 when WSF conducted a planning study for their
1990-2000 Long Range Plan Update.This study highlighted worsening traffic congestion and
steadily increasing ridership on the State’s auto ferries and
recommended the introduction of passenger only ferry service
from downtown Seattle to Bremerton, Vashon and Southworth.
At the same time, a business group from Bremerton was
urging the Washington State Transportation Commission, the
governing board of WSF, to concentrate a passenger only ferry
demonstration project on Bremerton to bolster redevelopment
efforts in that city and to improve ferry service for Kitsap
County residents.

In
1986 WSF purchased the Express (later known as the Tyee), a
catamaran built by Nichols Brother of Whidbey Island, for $2.5
million using a $1.6 million grant from the Urban Mass Transit
Authority (now know as the Federal Transit Authority).The vessel carried 319 passengers and operated at a
cruising speed of 23 knots between Seattle and Bremerton.
In 1989, WSF added two new monohulls, the Skagit and
Kalama, built in Louisiana at Equitable Shipyards of the Halter
Group. Carrying 250 passengers at a cruising speed of 25 knots
these vessels were used to expand service to Bremerton and
initiate service to Vashon Island.

Residents
along Rich Passage, a narrow channel of water between Bainbridge
Island and the Kitsap Peninsula on the Seattle-Bremerton route,
raised concerns about the shoreline damage allegedly caused by
the large wakes of the high speed passenger only ferries. The
State retained a consultant who discovered that if the
passenger-only ferries were allowed to continue to run at full
speed beach erosion and bulkhead deterioration would probably be
accelerated. This finding prompted WSF to slow the vessels to
less than 12 knots through Rich Passage in the summer of 1990,
increasing the travel time from 40 minutes to 55 minutes, a
savings of only 5 minutes over the auto ferry crossing.
In their continuing efforts to operate high-speed
passenger ferry service, WSF acquired two vessels, the Chinook
in 1998 and Snohomish in 1999, designed to reduce wake wash and
shoreline erosion. Although these two vessels were initially
able to cross from Bremerton to Seattle in 30 minutes, legal
action brought by shoreline residents resulted in the permanent
slow down of service through Rich Passage on the
Seattle-Bremerton route.
In
response to diminishing ferry funding caused by taxpayer
initiatives and dwindling ridership, the Transportation
Commission announced in 2002 its intention to eliminate
passenger-only ferry service in 2003.The Washington State Legislature approved the elimination of
passenger-only service to Bremerton in September 2003, but
extended funds for passenger-only service to Vashon Island.At the same time, the Legislature approved new
legislation granting Kitsap Transit the opportunity to ask the
residents of Kitsap County to support a passenger-only ferry
plan providing service initially from Southworth, Bremerton and
Kingston to downtown Seattle.